Calm Before The Storm
by mydoctortennant
Summary: A retelling of the OT4 roadtrip in 3x07.


**I started to write this before 3x07 but finished it afterwards so added in some scenes to it that I didn't think we should be without. It's a different take on the OT4 roadtrip, I wanted to give Morgana a few more shades of grey rather than just being black...**

The wind blew through the leaves in the forest just south of Camelot, rushing through the canopy, with the birds flying above the heads of the four youths.

Arthur rode up front with Morgana with Merlin and Gwen bringing up the rear. The pair of servants chattered away about nothing in particular. The pair of nobles - connected in blood - one unaware of the perils he was likely to come across over the next few months. None of them knew how much their lives were about to change.

Arthur looked over his shoulder as he rode, catching Gwen's eye as she laughed at whatever Merlin said to her. She stopped laughing and offered Arthur a smile. He smiled back distractedly.

"Honestly, Arthur, your mind is all over the place at the moment," Morgana cracked at him with a sincere smile. She loved them both dearly and if they were to find happiness within each other she had no qualms about it; it made for an easier life for her, gave her more leverage when it came to Arthur. Today he would die at the hands of Cenred and the crown would be hers. It would hurt her, if only for a while, and it would hurt Gwen, but Morgana would reward her for her years of hard service and once they'd ridded Camelot of Uther she would forget all about Arthur.

"Sorry?" He jerked back around to look at Morgana, somewhat dazed.

"You're off in space… all in your own world."

"No, I'm not. Come on, we should get moving if we want to make the caves by nightfall."

"Of course, Arthur," she smiled and shook her head at his change of subject; typical Arthur, avoiding talking about anything remotely to do with the heart. He knew exactly what she was referring to.

"Merlin, hurry up!"

"Gwen, come on."

They kicked their horses on into a trot, following the roads until they dwindled into small paths, "We need to stick together. Cenred's men could be anywhere."

He didn't catch the smirk that crossed Morgana's face. She knew they wouldn't be attacked, at least not until they reached their destination. No, they were protected until Morgana gave them the signal. She eyed Gwen, she had wanted her to lie to Arthur, take him along at the expense of not telling him that Cenred wanted her to take him there to kill him. But she had. She was incapable of lying to anyone. Morgana should never have expected her maid to lie to him; she had only hoped.

"Make sure you keep close, Guinevere," Arthur cleared his throat and nodded towards Morgana, "Morgana."

"Yeah, don't worry about me. Out on the end. Ready to be picked off at any time," Merlin remarked sarcastically.

"Don't make it sound so appealing, Merlin."

xxx

Somewhere along the journey Arthur had dropped back behind Morgana. Tarento walking alongside Gwen's horse. Morgana hadn't complained about being charged with leading. Merlin had dropped back further behind the pair of them. He'd not kicked his horse on past the and now he didn't want to impose… they weren't even talking, just riding in silence. There wasn't anything to say, not in front of the two people they were closest to.

The sun started to set behind the trees, casting long shadows across the woodland floor. The evening birdsong was long since over and if they didn't stop soon they would be riding in the dark, "We should set up camp for the night."

"We haven't reached the caves," Morgana argued, she'd told Morgause they would be there by nightfall to reach the castle by the following morning; "We should keep going."

"It's getting dark and injured horses are no good to us."

"We must reach the caves."

"We're perfectly safe here, Morgana. We're sheltered by the rocks and the river isn't far; don't worry."

"But-"

"Morgana, we stay here," he would always win when it came to who could be more stubborn. He had been raised by his father well in this respect. Morgana had only resulted to herself; Arthur had learnt from the best.

"Fine," she snapped, heading off into the woods claiming something about collecting firewood.

"What's got her wound so tight?" Arthur asked hoping down from his horse.

"No idea," Merlin said, shrugging after her.

Arthur looked towards Gwen who was stood beside her horse, feeding it an apple, "Gwen?" she shook her head, scratching the star on the forehead of her horse. She too looked worried. He brother was in trouble. A relative Arthur hadn't known she'd had. In recent times, since they'd become close, she'd not mentioned him and now the four of them were riding out, risking life and limb to save him. But he was her brother, and Arthur would do anything to help her.

xxx

Morgana slipped away from them, waiting until she was a good distance away before she pulled her mirror from her bag.

_He's made us stop for the night,_ she wrote with her spindly finger and waited for it to disappear, _I tried to continue the journey but he was adamant_ she continued letting the message disappear, _I am sorry sister._

She looked towards their camp, catching her _brother_ and her maid together. Under any other circumstance she would be happy for them.

_Don't worry, my sister, our plans can wait until tomorrow, _Morgana read the message before it disappeared, despite the words Morgause had said she still felt like a failure. She pushed the mirror back into her bag and headed back towards the camp She glimpse Arthur and Gwen again and couldn't help but feel like she had been missing something for a long time.

xxx

Arthur strolled across the forest floor towards Gwen, she looked worried, her brow creased with trepidation, "We'll get him back, Guinevere," he reassured. She offered him a weak smile, her hand underneath her horse's mane.

"I know. I just don't want to lose him now I finally have him back. I never thought I'd see him again. He's all I have left."

"Not _all_ you've got left," he slipped his hand over the horses neck and beneath its mane, resting his larger hand over hers, "You never need to be alone again."

Merlin, who had had his back to them for privacy's sake cleared his throat in warning to Morgana's return. Even if he suspected she knew about them, they didn't know. With one final squeeze of her hand Arthur dropped his arm to his side, "Merlin we should build the fire up," he said nodding towards the few logs Morgana had in her hands.

xxx

The night settled in quickly, the darkness enveloping them with its tight fists. The temperature plummeted. The fire before them raged, casting mysterious shadows across their faces, its flicking light shining in the eyes of the four watching it.

Arthur sat breaking a small twig into pieces throwing each into the fire. Each slice made the flames spit. He looked across the fire towards Gwen, he couldn't help but notice how much the firelight accentuated her beauty. The light caught her curls and her eyelashes and the deep colour of her eyes almost black in the night light. He watched her repetitive rubbing of her upper arms.

He cleared his throat and threw the finale piece of twig into the fire and looked towards Merlin, Morgana had already retired to sleep and was off the other side of the logs they had set up to sit on. Merlin looked at him, slightly stunned having been staring into the fire, "We need more firewood," Arthur said to him.

"Morgana collected some earlier."

"We don't want to freeze," he raised his eyebrows and looked pointedly towards Gwen without turning his head.

"I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Merlin."

Suddenly the penny dropped, "Oh. Oh! Yes, right, firewood," he suddenly scrambled up and ran into the forest. If Gwen noticed she didn't say anything. Arthur stood, grabbing the spare blanket from his pack and approaching Gwen. She jumped slightly still jumpy from the other evening.

"Here," he wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and took a seat next to her on the log.

"Thank you."

"How're you feeling?"

"I'm fine, just worried about Elyan. I'm always worried about Elyan. He always ends up being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Well, I don't think it was his fault this time," he offered leaning forwards onto his knees and smiling at her reassuringly.

"No, but even if he was I'd still be there for him. It's what you do when you love someone isn't it?" she looked up at him then, biting her bottom lip, "If anything happens to you I won't forgive myself."

"Don't worry, it won't," he couldn't help it; his gaze flickered to her lips, unblinking and unafraid. For so long he'd wanted to reach out, to touch her, to kiss her and forget about everybody else around them. When he looked back to her eyes he noticed her doing the same thing. His mouth quickly quirked at the corner before he leant towards her; Gwen mirroring his movements.

The sudden sound of a root snapping beneath Merlin's foot alerted them both to his presence. They snapped away from each other looking into the fire. Arthur took a moment to glower at Merlin who tried to start making excuses but he shook him off.

The moment was gone.

"He'll be okay," Arthur declared. Gwen looked at him again, her cheeks tinged pink, "Despite being ruthless, Cenred does stick by his word. No harm will come to him unless you don't keep up your end of the deal."

"I should never have gotten you involved in this mess."

"You did the right thing. We'll get him back," even Merlin missed the hand that Arthur laid over Gwen's on the log between them. He gently rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand before withdrawing it. He linked his fingers leaning on his knees again.

Gwen yawned, "I think I will retire to bed."

"Sleep well; we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Good night," she squeezed his shoulder as she walked behind him over to Morgana, the blanket Arthur gave her still around her shoulders, "Night, Merlin."

"Night Gwen," he turned back to looking at the fire, "You should sleep. I'll keep watch."

"No offence, Merlin, but I'd feel safer keeping watch myself."

"You need sleep if you're going to play the hero tomorrow. I'll wake you the second I hear anything."

Arthur subsided; "The very second."

He stood, stretching out. His shoulders slumped and he made his way to his make-shift bed. He looked over at Gwen as she slept beside him. This was the closest they could be. He wanted to reach out and hold her, tell her it would all be okay and by this time tomorrow they would be on their way back to Camelot. But the truth was he didn't know if they would make it. He didn't want to give her false hope. If Cenred wanted one of them dead, one of them might end up that way.

xxx

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Keeping watch in the middle of a forest, that even Arthur used to be scared of, yeah, a really good idea. And now he was bored. He'd been drawing pictures in the mud but even that got tiresome after a while.

He looked around their camp, even in the middle of the forest Arthur managed to spread himself around. Merlin sighed; he stood, walked over to their collection of belongings and started packing things that they wouldn't need in the morning. He folded one of Morgana's sheets and with as little distain as he could muster.

In the fractured moonlight he caught a glimpse of something, something reflective. He squinted and reached into the bag again pulled the chilled item from it. It flashed, a message appearing on it, _Don't worry, my sister, our plans can wait until tomorrow, _he dropped it making it crack, "Nooo," he winced, suddenly very aware he was being watched.

"Keep out of things that don't concern you," Morgana snapped taking her pack and her mirror from him and taking back to where she had been resting moments before.

It was as Merlin had thought, Cenred was in league with Morgause.

Arthur was as good as dead.

xxx

With the sun in the sky the three of them started to wake. Gwen was the first to stir, she felt a warmth across her middle, an arm she found upon opening her eyes. She smiled, gently running her fingers over his hand before she sat up fully.

Arthur stirred at her touch, her fingers cold in comparison to his, "Morning," he withdrew his hand. He mouthed his apology. She smiled at him. She looked over towards the fire, it had since extinguished and Merlin still sat by it. Leaning on his hand, his mouth hanging open as he snored.

Gwen laughed, pointing towards him.

Arthur raised a finger to his lip and she fell silent, shoulders occasionally shaking as she contained her laughter. Arthur light footed his way over to the fire. He leant so his face was level with Merlin's, "Rise and shine!" he shouted in his servants ear making the male at hand jump a foot in the air. Gwen laughed out loud then, "Keeping watch, are we?"

"Sorry."

"We should get moving," the two men looked over to the new voice, Morgana had woken.

"Indeed, pack and go," Arthur nodded at her turning to Gwen who was still smiling at Merlin. She looked up at him and kept his gaze for a few seconds.

"We have bread and cheese we can eat as we ride," Merlin announced already tying his pack to his horses saddle. Arthur suddenly looked over to him, bringing himself back down to Earth.

"Great, we should get moving as soon as possible."

Gwen started gathering their blankets. Morgana helping her, "Did you sleep well, my lady?"

"Yes, thank you Gwen, yourself?"

"The best I could," she admitted.

"I'm sure Elyan will be fine. We'll get him out of there. Arthur will," Gwen smiled in thanks to her mistress, Morgana smiling friendlily until Gwen turned her back on her and her look turned to a scowl thrown in Arthur's direction.

Oh, Arthur would get Elyan out for sure, but the Prince wouldn't be returning to Camelot any time soon.


End file.
